Asia Society brings historic show of Pakistani art to US Sep 2009

Faiza Butt. Get out of my dreams II, 2008. Ink on polyester film. H. 22 x W. 28 1/2 in. (55.9 x 72.4 cm). Private collection, London.

PAKISTANI ART SHOW

Along with the Japan Society and the ICP, the Asia Society based in New York is developing a reputation for curating the most influential books and shows to document emerging art coming out of Asia today.

Its upcoming show Hanging Fire promises to be no exception. Introducing Pakistani contemporary art to a wider Western audience, this taste-making show highlights the major artists to watch and trends to follow.

Find below more information from the press release:

Despite Pakistan’s reputation in the West as a politically and socially volatile nation, it has been fostering a vibrant yet low-profile contemporary art scene for the past two decades.

The Asia Society Museum in New York City is proud to present this work in the first major exhibition of contemporary Pakistani art in the United States.

Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art From Pakistan will explore the seeming contradiction of Pakistan’s flourishing art scene within the struggling nation.

Hanging Fire is curated for the Asia Society by the distinguished Salima Hashmi, one of Pakistan’s most important writers and curators, and the daughter of Pakistan’s most renowned poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

The exhibition will showcase 55 works by 15 artists, comprising installation art, video, photography, painting and sculpture. A number of the works have never been exhibited, including a large-scale site-specific painting by Imran Qureshi.

On the inspiration for the show, Asia Society Museum Director,  Dr. Melissa Chiu, comments:

“The idea for Hanging Fire came from a recognition that over the past decade, a new generation of artists in Pakistan have created compelling works that have largely gone unnoticed outside their country. The exhibition includes artists for whom the highly charged socio-political context in which they live and work is critical to understanding their art.”

The exhibition’s title, Hanging Fire, refers to an idiom that means “to delay decision.” In the context of the exhibition, the title invites the audience to delay judgment, particularly about contemporary society and artistic expression in Pakistan. It also alludes to the modern economic, social, and political tensions––both local and global––from which the featured artists find their creative inspiration.

A full color, 160-page publication by Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition. On exhibition 10 September through 3 January, 2010.

A list of artists in the exhibition follows:

• Hamra Abbas, b. 1976, Kuwait; lives and works in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and Boston
• Bani Abidi, b. 1971, Karachi; lives and works in Karachi
• Zahoor ul Akhlaq, b. 1941, Delhi; died 1999, Lahore
• Faiza Butt, born 1973, Lahore; lives and works in London
• Ayaz Jokhio , b. 1978, Mehrabpur, Sindh; lives and works in Lahore
• Naiza Khan, b. 1968, Bahawalpur, Punjab; lives and works in Karachi
• Arif Mahmood, b. 1960, Karachi; lives and works in Karachi
• Huma Mulji, b. 1970, Karachi; lives and works in Lahore
• Asma Mundrawala, b. 1965, Karachi; lives and works in Karachi
• Imran Qureshi, b. 1972, Hyderabad, Sindh; lives and works in Lahore
• Rashid Rana, b. 1968, Lahore; lives and works in Lahore
• Ali Raza, b. 1969, Lahore; lives and works in Boone, North Carolina, and Lahore
• Anwar Saeed, b. 1955, Lahore; lives and works in Lahore
• Adeela Suleman, b. 1970, Karachi; lives and works in Karachi
• Mahreen Zuberi, b. 1981, Karachi; lives and works in Karachi

Related Links:

Imran Qureshi (born 1972). Moderate Enlightenment, 2007. Gouache on wasli. H. 9 x W. 7 in. (22.9 x 17.8 cm). Aicon Gallery, New York.

• Asia Society
• Time Out New York– more images
• Artfully Provocative: Gulf News reports on this this exhibition
• Hanging Fire by Yale University Press
• Art Asia Pacific reports on contemporary Pakistani art

Related Posts:

The posts below provide more introductory material to Pakistani contemporary art useful for comparison with the Asia Society’s take on the art scene in Pakistan.

• Pakistani Contemporary Miniature Art- Video– June 09
• Rarely Exhibited Art and More Firsts at Asian Contemporary Art Week 2009– April 09
• Three Pakistani Female Artists in New York, review–  Jan 09
• Emerging Pakistani Artists Getting Noticed in India and Abroad– July 2008
• Best of Pakistani Art in show Bradford, UK– July 2008

Contributed by Erin Wooters

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